What is a reasonable good will gesture amount?

Tilona

I hope someone can advise. When a big national retailer offers £50 as a good will gesture, but will accept a counter offer, what would a reasonable counter offer be considering a monetary loss of £600 as well as the stress this has caused for a whole year? Any advice would be appreciated! Thank you!

born_again

Well without a some/lot of idea of what it is about. No.

Aylesbury_Duck

£51 ?


..

davidmcn

If they don't actually owe you anything, £50 may well be a reasonable "please go away with your absurd claim and stop taking up our customer service time" offer. If of course they actually owe you £600 then it's far too low.

Manxman_in_exile

Your post isn't clear.  Are they recompensing you £600 for the monetary loss plus £50 as an "apology", or are they only paying you £50 as a "gesture" because you aren't entitled to £600 recompense?

Tilona

@Manxman_in_exile
It is the latter. They aren't compensating me as they weren't part of any FOS scheme at the time so don't have to repay me therefore offered £50 as a "good will gesture" only so now wondering whether to accept this or what to counter offer...

Manxman_in_exile

OK.  Why do you think you've lost £600 and/or why do you think they owe you this?

Tilona

@Manxman_in_exile
It's a long story but it is about a missold insurance issue. So I have paid £600 in total insurance that was missold...FOS can't do anything as the company wasn't part of an FOS scheme at the time and the retailer are now offering a good will gesture of £50 after FOS spoke to them. It took me a year of hassle to get here...

JJ_Egan

Misold in what way ??

Was the insurance in use ???

Aylesbury_Duck

Well it clearly wasn't comprehensive.

Based on what you've now told us, I'd say £52 would be a good counter offer. 

eddddy

Tilona said:

It's a long story but it is about a missold insurance issue. So I have paid £600 in total insurance that was missold...FOS can't do anything as the company wasn't part of an FOS scheme at the time and the retailer are now offering a good will gesture of £50 after FOS spoke to them. It took me a year of hassle to get here...

It would be so much easier if you explained what the "Goodwill gesture" is for.

For example, the FOS awards "Goodwill gestures" when a company has made an error - and a consumer has to make lots of phone calls, write lots of letters etc before the company corrects their error.

• So, first of all - have both you and the company agreed that they made an error in selling you the insurance?

• e.g. Did you decide to buy the insurance, but later found it was unsuitable for you, or did the company tell you that the insurance was suitable for you, and you later found it wasn't.

• If the company made the error, have they now refunded your £600? And have you now cancelled the policy?

• If the company made the error, how many phone calls, letters etc did you have to send to get the error corrected?   How much distress did it cause getting the error corrected cause you.  That would be an indicator of how much you should ask for a "Goodwill gesture".

TBH, I wouldn't be too surprised if the company are simply saying "If we give you £50, will you go away and leave us alone?"

So perhaps the question you need to ask yourself is "How much can I persuade them to pay me, to make me go away?"

But bear in mind that if you push them too hard, they might 'snap' and refuse to pay you anything.